The Island of the Waiting
by JeanTheLacky
Summary: Only those with some one lost to them are drawn here. Spirits who need a path back into life wait. They wait for that one person to grab their hand, and bring them back. They wait, for the man who will be Pirate King. (rated K for now. Will probably change later.)
1. Chapter 1

**"_There's an island to the West that's merely a legend. It's called the island of the waiting."_**_ The drunkard whispered in the ear of the wide eyed youth donning a yellow boater's hat.**  
**_

_"**Why's it called the 'Island of the waiting?'" **The Pirate captain tilted his head, still entrapped in the old man's tale. But the kook just laughed loudly and slapped his knee. The black haired teenager pouted, his interest lost, and ran to catch up with his navigator._

* * *

_Sploosh~ Sploosh~_

The tranquil sound of waves filled the young man's ears. His eyes were closed, his body sprawled out on the beach, consciousness floating off with the tide. How long had he been here now? The sun had risen and fallen so many times he'd lost count of the days. But it couldn't have been a more than a month.

"Ace!" A boy called to him, his grin evident in his voice. The Black haired, freckle faced man groaned in response to the pitter patter of the boy's bare feet running on sand. "Come on, Ace! Get up." The boy pouted. Grey eyes reluctantly opened, met with a a giant grin that was missing a tooth, and a head of curly blonde hair. "Let's spar!"

The man, Ace, sighed, but truthfully was happy. "Alright Sabo, but you know you still can't take me." He teased, getting to his feet. "Even without my fruit abilities, I'm way stronger!" He smirked, mocking the much shorter boy, who wore dark blue shorts and a tattered cerulean tailcoat.

"Yeah, yeah." Sabo rolled his eyes, still grinning.

* * *

_What was this place? How did I get here? _Ace had wondered, wandering the beach he had washed up on. The last thing he'd remembered was crying, as his younger brother held him, blood dripping from his abdomen to the ground. He remembered feeling cold, but no pain, as he coughed out what he'd believed to be his final words.

_Was this heaven?_ He chuckled to himself. Yeah, sure, how could a pirate with dirt blood like his make it into heaven? But he retracted his scoff when he saw a boy, leaned against a rock and looking out over the ocean with a telescope. That... could that be? No. No, Sabo was dead! But then again, so was Ace.

He stood in place, unnoticed by the preoccupied child. He brought his hand to his chest, checking for a heart beat. His breath hitched, noticing there was none. Another test, he held his breath. After nearly a minute he felt no need at all for air. Dumbfounded he looked at both of his hands in disbelief.

"Ace?" A young, familiar voice pulled him from his incomprehensible thoughts. He looked up, the boy had finally noticed him and was staring wide eyed. "Ace?" The boy gasped again, then broke out in a grin that brought tears to the pirate's eyes.

"Sabo." He choked out, stumbling forward, breaking into a run to tackle the blonde in a hug. "Sabo!" He nearly sobbed, clutching the boy's coat, repeating his name over and over, as if it was a spell to make sure the boy stayed real.

Summer passed and autumn came, making ace wonder why heaven would have seasons, but his doubts would wash away every time he saw Sabo's grin. Winter came around and Ace was amazed to find he could lay in the snow without feeling the cold. Soon it was spring again and another euphoric year passed the brothers by as they sparred and Ace regaled his adventures.

In the two years Sabo had actually grown, which seemed strange to both of them since Sabo had been on the the island, or 'heaven', for 10 years before Ace had arrived and hadn't grown an inch. But now, the boy was a young man, looking to be in his mid teens. Thankfully his clothing seemed to grow with him, which seemed equally strange. But hey, this was heaven, it's very existence didn't make sense.

* * *

"Land!" Usopp yelled from the crows nest. A small island coming into view through the eye of his telescope.

"Which direction?" Nami called up to the long-nosed sharp shooter.

"Hmm... About 20 degrees North!" He yelled back.

"Great!" Nami smiled and spun around, excited to finally be nearing the island. On the previous island the crew was unable to find what they needed (fresh food, women's clothing, and meat among other things), so she had asked around if there was another place nearby that might have what they needed. A kind older woman in a book shop told her of a small trade island 2 days sail to the East that wouldn't show up on the Eternal Pose. With luck and great navigation, the woman had said they should be able to find it.

3 hours later, they docked in the small port and Luffy flung himself from the ship, landing on the wooden dock. "Whoa!" He looked around at the tall buildings, and bustling streets.

"For a hard to find island this place is SUUPEEER crowded." Franky noted, after jumping off the Sunny Go and landing next to his captain.

* * *

_Author's note: So, I haven't written anything in over a year, so I know I'm rusty, but please tell me what you guys think! This is just the pilot chapter, which explains why it's so short, so if it doesn't seem like any one wants this to continue, then I won't continue. Oh! If you have critique LET ME KNOOOWWWWW. Super! _

_Also, if anyone wants to suggest pairings/ships/plot developments, my ears are open!_


	2. First Reunion

_So, as mentioned before, the previous chapter was just a pilot. And since I got such a great response from it that I literally cried, here you go; the lovely in depth first official chapter!_

* * *

Ace pulled back, releasing the child in his arms and gazing at the boy's face. He wiped the tears from his own eyes, trying to clear his vision, as if his tears were making him confuse this person before him for some one else. A sob escaped the man's lips when he confirmed, with out a doubt, that this was Sabo.

He touched the boy's cheek, looked into those big blue eyes, noted the missing canine tooth. Ace, really was dead. He had to be, for Sabo to be here. Just the same as he was 10 years before. He thought with a smile,_ 'what good did I do to deserve seeing him again?'_

Sabo couldn't take it anymore. He let out a loud cry of his own and threw himself into his big brother's chest. Well, now he was his big brother, seeing as he's grown to be 2 feet taller than him. "Ace," he squeaked, "I missed you."

"I missed you too." he sniffled and nodded, clutching the boy like he might float off into the ocean.

"So, are we... dead?" Ace already knew the answer, but he wanted a confirmation. Turning to look at the kid seated next to him. They both were now leaned against the large boulder, overlooking the receding tide as the sun started to set.

"I..." Sabo looked at his crossed knees, "I guess. What other explanation is there?" Ace let out an amused snot beside him. Truly, there wan't any. They sat in silence again for a minute or so.

"And you've been alone here? This whole time?" Ace's voice was pained, if he's known Sabo had been waiting for him, he might have let himself die sooner... no, he wouldn't have. Even now he desperately wanted to go back, make sure Luffy made it out, drink with his brothers, talk with Oyaji, but, now he couldn't. For as every one knows, people can't come back from the dead.

"Not entirely alone." He bit his lip, thinking. "There's a boy and a girl who come here sometimes, usually they only stay for a few months, last time they stayed a whole year. But otherwise, yeah. I've been alone." He then turned up to smile at the freckled face. "But it's not all that bad! I built a tree house up on the inland," he pointed to a forest at the end of the beach, "And I don't need to eat, so I'm sorta friends with the animals here."

That eased Ace's heart a bit. He hadn't left his brother to wallow in lonliness after all. "That's good." he ruffled his curly blonde hair. But the sadness still lingered, just because he wasn't alone didn't make it okay that they were apart.

"Well, now you've got me too. And I'll never let you leave again." He lightly punched Sabo in the head, then wrapped his arm around his slim shoulders. "Got that?"

"Haha, yeah." Sabo grinned, leaning into Ace. "How the hell did you get so big? It's not fair."

Ace chuckled, retorting; "Cause I ate plenty of meat."

* * *

_Okay, I know this is super short, but I had a really hard time with my computer loosing everything and I rewrote this like 5 times so... I had been hoping to upload this, twice as long, 2 days ago. But well, yeah... My goal is to update every other day with chapter much longer than this one. Tune in next chapter for some Luffy and the gang action! :D *cries because this chapter is so short*_


	3. Let's Have Some Fun

_**Present Day ( 2 months after Straw Hat's arrival in the New World)**_

"AIIIEEEEEEE!" Nami released the most blood churning scream the woman could summon from her lungs. She spun on her heels and sprinted, stumbling over a tree root, trying to put as much distance between her and the creature as possible.

Behind the orange haired woman, a seven foot tall beast with eight beady red eyes and an equal amount of hairy legs- each longer than it's height, leaped from it's spot on the forest floor. It landed between the trees just in front of the terrified woman, making her fall on her rear. Shaking, she scooted backwards, feeling the ground for anything to use as a weapon. She felt a rock touch her fingers and she clutched it, hurling it at one of the spider's many eyes. "LUFFYYY!" She cried and got to her feet, running again in the opposite direction, towards the harbor. "HELP ME!"

On the other side of the island, the woman's captain was having quite a bit of fun. Along with his first mate and sharpshooter, Monkey D. Luffy was wrangling a nest of giant squirrels. "Meat!" Luffy drooled, punching one of the over grown rodent's in the face, imagining what they would taste like once cooked up by his trusted chef.

Said chef was pacing the beach near where their ship was docked- well, not exactly docked seeing as there was no dock, but it was on the beach and anchored to keep it from sailing away with out the majority of the crew. Sanji, puffed from his cigarette, pondering what to make Nami and the resident archaeologist, Robin, for lunch. Then he heard the scream.

A woman, no not any woman, was in trouble. "NAMI-SWAN!" He ran off into the forest as fast as his famously strong legs could take him. Thoughts of what could have frightened his favorite red head flashed through his mind, were there navies here? Savages who would defile a woman in a horrid way? Did some manner of animal make her it's food? His stomach knotted, fearing what terrible fate might take his beloved female companion.

"SANJI!" He heard her exclaim- tears in her voice- as she came into sight. Relief washed over him upon seeing her alive. He opened his arms wide to welcome her embrace- but she wizzed by him, "Please take care of it!" She waved behind her, continuing to the safy of the ship.

And then he saw the creature. A spider larger than he'd ever seen. With a smirk, the cook took his fag from his lips, dropped it to the dirt and ground it with his foot. "Shall we dance?" He jumped in the air, swinging his right foot right into the side of the beast's head, sending it flying into a tree trunk.

The spider let out a mortifying cry of pain, before shriveling up. The cook landed and blinked at the carcass. Well that was anti-climactic. He shrugged, walking out of the forest, to the ship. Now he could cook for Nami and Robin!

Back to the lovable dunce of a captain, who- though a dunce- was quite capable, as he displayed by taking down the 30 foot beast you could loosely call a Squirrel. Well, Luffy- his captain- called it a Mystery Squirrel to be precise. "Whoa! Zoro!" He looked to his green haired first mate in awe, as a squirrel twice the size of the one the rubber-man just took down out fell to the ground and rolled down the steep hill- in many pieces- where the long nosed sharp shooter leaped back from it, shaking. "Think we've got enough?" Luffy grinned at his friends.

The rest of the pack of bruised and battered humongous squirrels cowered, backed up then sprinted deep into the forest in the opposing direction. "Doesn't matter, the rest of 'em just got a way." Zoro grunted, grabbing the tail of Luffy's kill and sliding down the grass covered cliff.

Franky hung from the side of the Merry Go, kept up by a swing type contraption as he repaired some of the damage caused by Doflamingo. Robin lay in a sun chair beneath him, reading the latest news paper, as Brook stood on the deck of the ship, tuning his violin. In a flash of orange, a figure ran past the two on the outside of the ship. "Welcome back Nami, did you find anything?" Robin greeted.

"Yeah. Don't wanna talk about it." The redhead panted, leaned against the exterior of the large ship. "Oh, is that the news paper?" Having calmed herself, the white bunch of papers in Robin's hand caught her attention. "Anything important?" She knelt down, getting a look at the page Robin was reading from. It showed two hooded figures, in a setting of docks at night.

"It seems there are some new, strong rookies. The Arashi Pirates." Robin flipped the page. "I doubt we need to worry about them just yet."

* * *

**_2 months Earlier, 6 weeks before the arrival of the Straw Hat's in the New World. On an island near the second half of the Grandline._**

"You're quite the fool." The taller of two hooded figures chuckled. He brought his hands out of his pockets, empty and palms up. "But, I suppose you couldn't know who I am." The only visible feature on this man's face was a malicious grin.

"Jean, try not to char them too bad." The other hooded figure, a young woman by the voice, sighed. Jean, the man, nodded and stepped towards the blockade of Marines, who stood in the duo's path to their small fishing boat.

The apparent leader of the group of Marines scoffed, folding his arms. "And just who are you?" A sarcastic to the man's previous jab. It was so annoying how every pirate seemed to have a complex. Best if they exterminate these annoying ones before their heads got too big.

"Thunder Bird Jean. Captain of the Arashi Pirates, nice to meet ya." Jean, cocked his head to the side and his hood slid down, showing medium length windswept hair and excited hazel eyes.

"Kuina. First mate." The young woman smiled, pulling down her hood to show shoulder length black hair and piercing black eyes. Her hand loosely clutched the white sword at her side. An ominous chuckle escaped her mouth. "Pleasure meeting you. Pity though."

Then, as the Marine Captain laughed mockingly, there was a flash of blue light, originating from Jean's hands, and the whole two rows of soldiers fell to the ground, twitching. Electric sparks flying this way and that from their bodies.

"Please tell me you didn't kill them." Kuina groaned, throwing her partner a glare. "I kind wanted to slice a few, ya know."

"Heh, sorry." He scratched the back of his head, then exclaimed, flashing a look of pretend hurt; "Of course not! We need them to tell the world about us, after two years of preparing for this day do you think I'd seriously foil everything at the start?" Grinning, he pulled up his hood. "They'll be up in an hour or so." Jean skipped off to the fishing boat with the jollyroger, a skull that looked like a rain cloud, and two thunder bolts in place of cross-bones. "Now, to collect our crew!"

"About that, are you sure you want _him_? I mean, how are you even going to convince him to join?"

"Simple." Jean zapped on to the wooden deck and swung over the railing to blink at his 'sister', as he liked to call the short girl. "Remember the plan?"

* * *

I'm sorry I put an OC in here, but if it's an consolation his only love interest, as the great Oda says, is the Sea!


End file.
